HELENA – Rep. Randy Pinocci's voice vibrated with frustration as he described the legislative session now in the homestretch with just more than a month to go.

"I don't have enough time to go through each issue," he said. "They don't give us enough days. We can't do a good enough job with the time they give us."

The freshman lawmaker, a Republican from Sun River, had to bite his tongue during the House's two days of discussion on the Republican House leadership's budget. The budget, which passed 59-41 along party lines, is a 5.5 percent increase over the budget of the previous biennium. Gov. Steve Bullock's budget has a 2.5 percent larger spending increase, and he's vowed to veto the budget as it now stands. It's in Senate hands now.

Democrats fruitlessly proposed nearly 100 amendments over two days to add things such as the governor's $37 million preschool program, money for the state nursing home and Warm Springs mental hospital and a boost to pay for additional child protective services employees.

Among the major amendments rejected was a motion to fund Gov. Steve Bullock's $37 million Early Edge preschool program.

"The majority of my constituents want smaller government. What does the taxpayer want?" he said. "I hear every excuse, but we spend money on [expletive] that's ridiculous."

“The majority of my constituents want smaller government. ”

Rep. Randy Pinocci, R-Sun River

"A good amount of people had come to me and said they would like a cut" to the budget, he said, counting himself among those who would like an overall reduction in the size of the budget.

"We increased the budget by 5.7 percent. Did wages increase by 5.7 percent?" he said.

The amendments proposed by the Democrats focused on schools, hospitals and prisons — "on the heart strings, where we can get emotional and get out the Kleenex."

Pinocci wants to delve deeper into every budget request he's asked to vote on, and other bills for that matter.

When the Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind lobbied for more money, "I want to go to the Deaf and Blind school and see if they're struggling. I want to spend a few days with the kids and teachers. But I can't even leave the Capitol."

He wouldn't want to cut school funding, though, he said. Instead, he has a lot of issues with Fish, Wildlife and Parks and how the agency spends its budget.

"We spend $900,000 a year on the wolf, and the wolf is killing our elk and deer," he said. "People say the federal government makes us spend this money, but we don't have to. The wolf is going to fend for itself without us spending a dime."

And as for a state employee wage increase, "I don't know any state employee who makes the wages I make, $5 an hour for 16-hour days," he said.

Legislators make $82 a day and a $109 per diem.

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Rep. Randall Pinocci, R-Sun River, listens to a motion on the House floor during the 64th Legislature.(Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/LARRY BECKNER)

A 90-day session leaves little time for the work he wants to do.

"It's impossible to do this work in that short of time," he said. "People are driving hundreds of miles and then we run out of time to hear them."

One of Pinocci's greatest frustrations has been the fate of his priority legislation for the session, House Bill 200, which would required those who apply for the state's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to fill out a questionnaire and then take a drug test if answers raised red flags.

Opponents said it violated privacy, unfairly targeted the poor and would prevent people in need from asking for help. Pinocci sees his pitch as a way to get more people into drug treatment and save children's lives.

Only one member of the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee — Sen. David Howard, R-Park City — voted in support of Pinocci's bill. The committee tabled it. The House had passed it in February 55-45.

"What the paper doesn't want to report is when people are put in prison for 50 years, that's expensive and they never go back to work," he said. "Here I am, wanting to spend money on drug treatment, but I'm the bad guy for picking on the poor. If I save one parent, I could pay for this program."

"How could it get to the Senate and then die? Something is rotten," he said. "I've got dead children all over and this state and it could be fixed with this."